In 1991, after a discussion with a close friend , Gerry Van Mansfeld, then 25 year old Indi musician, began to envision a place where musicians could gather for friendship, encouragement and most importantly where they could combine their resources to become a force for good in the world. He was one of them, a broke musician just wanting someone to give him a hand up, maybe some free studio time and a little guidance. The discussion with his friend Philip Palmer had been a revelation centered around "We are the World", "Farm-Aid", and like projects that pooled mainstream artists to make a difference through music.
It was not until late 1995 when, without resources himself, Gerry turned to friend and soon to be mentor, Alan Stephens of AJS Studios and shared his idea. Alan, although supportive, was skeptical but agreed to let Gerry use his studio facilities for projects. That year Gerry helped a fellow artists, Todd Turner, record the "He Played Seven" Album. That led to a seconded endeavor as he then, in 1997, recorded Bernie Timbrook's "Philosophies" and finally got around to his own project. "Taste" in 1998.
In 2003, after years of EV being the exclusive idea of a few, the handful of participants decided on the official formation of Empty Vessel Music. EV opened up it's first studio location near Atlanta, GA. That year, Todd Turner, Ralph Seibel, Philip Palmer and Gerry Van Mansfeld began building EV Music Studio's with about $20,000 of there own capitol and a lot of sweat equity. It was this same year that Scott Ballauf was introduced to Empty Vessel through a Mutual friend. Scott would later become a key catalyst in the direction EV would take.
In November of 2004 Empty Vessel obtained its 501(c) 3 Non-Profit Status and began to initiate it's Musician Mentorship Program with it's first "official" group Grave2Life. Grave2Life's drummer was all set to return to the Philippines due to his frustration with the slow progress of the band. The opportunity to record and play again invigorated the band and to this day they are going strong !!
Early in 2005 Empty Vessel began to realize a bigger purpose. If it was going to fulfill its original vision the artist would need to get out of the studio and get involved on a deeper level. have an Impact it needed to be involved and began looking for a different breed of musician call musicianaries.
March of 2006 EV signed The Less to the Musicians Mentorship Program and began recording their first album. Their first gig with EV had them opening for ELI. For the following year they began to impact Atlanta’s Homeless shelters, local Churches and The Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Atlanta. It was at the Hard Rock they realized they could make a difference in peoples lives. The band progressed and became Alumni of EV receiving several offers from Major Labels.
Later that same year EV partnered with Safehouse in Atlanta and hosted the Empty Vessel Hip Hop Forum. The Forum focused on Hip Hop Artists' purpose and then took a practical turn at the end of the conference by holding An outdoor concert for Atlanta Homeless. As the artists performed the concert goers were fed.
2007 Brought with it both excitement and challenge for Empty Vessel. Early in the Year we picked up our first international outreach to Myanmar Southeast Asia with a vision to replicate our work in that country. We looked at war torn Sierra Leone and began accumulating cloths and other non perishable to ship to the country. Clearly Our focus began to center not only on domestic needs but world needs as well. We began to discover as well that our selection of artists was no easy task and we needed to sharpen our purpose and prune the organization to better center it's self back to it's original vision.
Today, 15 years later, with its innovative and unique model, Empty Vessel Music is recognized as the first and the leader in the not-for-profit Indi recording business. Our expectations for 2008 and the years ahead is to have a growing and continued influence on Artists who want to make a real difference and impact in this world.
